An investigation into communication apprehension and self-efficacy of first year accountancy students

It has been identified by research as early as 1986 (AAA's Bedford Report) that the business community requires accountants to display a wide range of vocational skills beyond the traditional requirement of just being good at the numbers. Denna et al. in 1993 identified that due to the increasing influence of Information Technology, accountants needed to possess a strong understanding of business, have significant interpersonal skills and leadership skills. The key vocational skill needed for this new philosophy that enables businesses to continually respond to a constantly changing world is communication (Stout and DaCrema 2004), but it has been noted that this skill is particularly lacking amongst accountants in either a written or verbal manner (Dagget and Liu 1997, Hirsch and Collins 1988, Borzi and Mills 2001, O'Connell 2015, Ireland 2016). The testing and results for one-hundred and thirty-one first year undergraduate accounting students indicate that many students possess high levels of communication apprehension (as first defined by McCroskey 1970). McCroskey's intervention to help reduce communication apprehension is too expensive both in terms of time and resources required. Therefore this thesis investigates the use of self-efficacy techniques (as advocated by Bandura 1977, 1986, 2006) in the first year accounting pedagogy at Sheffield Hallam University. The investigation into communication self-efficacy techniques may be limited to Sheffield Hallam University's first year undergraduate accounting and business studies students but it does indicate that different pedagogical interventions must be created to help male and female accounting students. Both and male and female accounting students indicated that the technique which had the strongest influence on their communication self-efficacy was that of personal mastery (practice). Male accounting students went on to suggest that support by their class colleagues and their tutor acting as a mentor had a significant influence. For female accounting students what has come through strongly is the need for more female accounting role models. There is a call for female professional accountants to get involved with universities. This involvement needs to be in the form of influencing the curriculum and giving guest lectures. This involvement will hopefully allow the female students to vicariously experience (observe) and gain inspiration to be the next future generation of female professional accountants.